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Death is not a subject we generally like to talk about, but along with taxes it is the other certainty that we all have in life. Unexpected and sudden deaths of our loved ones are one of the hardest things we experience in life. At such times, it is understandable that conversations about donating organs can be difficult when relatives are dealing with shock and grief.

Living in an advanced economy and having a generally temperate climate means that we can often think that any extremes of weather are not going to have much impact on our lives. It is true that developing countries suffer to a much greater extent when there are extreme weather events, but we should not underestimate the potential that extreme weather events of a greater intensity and frequency could have locally.

Henry Smith MP, who serves as a Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on New Towns, has called on the Government to put communities such as Crawley centre stage in the 2018 Autumn Budget.

Democracy is something that we can take for granted although many parts of the world still have no democracy at all, or much less freedom to express political views than we enjoy in the west. I am however noticing a new intolerance of freedom of speech from the British Left, headed up by the Momentum organisation that now has seized political control of the Labour Party.

The UK will be leaving the EU in March 2019 although I feel that news coverage about Brexit is somewhat overplayed. Many things have already been agreed although the media attention perhaps understandably tends to be on matters yet to be resolved. We tend to see those who are trying to sabotage Brexit, presenting leaving the EU as some sort of apocalyptic event, which is of course nonsense.

There are several major news stories going on at the moment but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the less newsworthy issues that still need addressing. Britain has long had a reputation of being a nation of animal lovers, and so it is fitting that we recognise this in the opportunities that will arise as we leave the European Union political organisation.

None of us like to hear about violent crime in Crawley, especially when weapons are involved. It feels like we are often reading about local reports of stabbings, although the situation is much worse in London which has seen a large number of murders this year. Much of this crime is drug related and tends to occur between criminals rather than innocent members of the public being the victims, although not exclusively so. No one wants it happening or being caught up in it.